Hacer Tamales

Yesterday in Young Womens we had an awesome activity! One of the other YW leaders, Sister Silva, is from Venezuela and taught us how to make tamales, or as they call them in Venezuela, hallacas. Since we only had an hour for the activity, she had alrady prepped most of the ingredients and we assembled them and learned about them. We prepped big banana leaves and then made a cornmeal sort of outer layer and filled it with a meat mixture, vegetables, raisins, etc. Then she had some for us to try since they take an hour to cook. It was great! I had never had tamales before and they were really good and very filling.

Sister Silva said that getting all the ingredients ready for this is the first time she has ever made them on her own without tons of family all working together. They only make them in December and when they make them, they make at least 200 at a time.

Anyways, this ties back to our trip to Georgia last month. Kara and Sam took us to an International Farmer's Market where you could buy food and ingredients from all over the world that you can't find in regular grocery stores. I think there may be a little store down the street a a ways from our house but I have never been in it. To make real tamales, you have to go to someplace like that or else specifically Hispanic stores. I don't remember seeing frozen banana leaves in the Kroger recently...

In summation, I think I need to be a more adventurous cook and try some very new and different things. Thanks to Kara and Sam for exposing us to new foods and cultures! I'll keep y'all posted if Ihave any new developments in this area.